As various more-or-less mainstream GOP politicians tried to scramble to the front of the parade, slip elephants into the march, and climb on the bandwagon, the mainstream media's punditocracy set to work with warped planks and thirty-year-old recycled nails building what they thought the campaign platform of the "Tea Baggers" should be.

The last time we had a tea party, and then "grew up", we strapped on our cojones, picked up our rifles, and started shooting the bastards. Is this what these slanderous, propaganda-spewing bastards want from us? Another American Revolution? Because they won't win.

I'm continually baffled by those that go ape-shit over the Tea Party and how "threatening" it is.

What about the government spending less is so God aweful? I suppose if you're one who wants to suckle at the teat of that which is stolen from productive people, then yeah, the Tea Party is pretty threatening, but it would appear that most of those I've seen losing it over the Tea Baggers are affluent.

Perhaps, as it usually is in politics, it is about controlling others.

I still haven't figured out what the TEA Party is. I initially thought it was about all about smaller government and lower taxes with nice side of balanced budget. THAT I agree with. Now, when I look at the Tea Party, I am seeing a lot more infulence from the Religous Right which I am not comfortable with. It is seeming more and more like (whispered) "lower taxes" (and then loud) "And turn in your Bibles to the second chapter of questionable sience verse 1 through 21" (Please rise as we read into the word of God).

I don't get it. One idea is purely fiscal, the other is... well... social, I guess. Not-fiscal. What do the two have to do with eachother and why are they mixing them so hard?

If you can convince your followers "the others" are atrocious you can get said followers to commit atrocities against them.Simple as that.Of course any act of self defense by "the others" will be proof they are evil incarnate and the wrath of the entire federal government will be brought down on them.Cynical? Me? Why do you ask?

Stuart, the "TEA party" is all about fiscal responsibility. The elephant riding politicos are trying to cozy up (because the right talks a better fiscally responsible game than the left) and they have brought their baggage with them.The TEA party is doomed to fail because it is single issue. The problem is, people aren't.

"[O]n some issues, the two wings of the GOP are in accord, but tea party activists and supporters do not speak for the entire Republican Party on issues such as the deficit, global warming, evolution, abortion, gay marriage, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Education, or Social Security."

So... they said that Tea Party activists don't necessarily agree with mainstream GOP on these issues. In other words, the Tea Party is NOT towing a particular line on these issues.

The statement emphasizes that the Tea Party is NOT about these issues; which is the opposite of what you claim.

(P.S. Been to a few Tea Party rallies. It's mostly "more freedom, lower taxes, less spending")